Why Fund Basic Research?

The true power of things like abstract math and experimental science is not that it enables to invent things which we have conceived of but do not have, it is that it enables us to conceive of entirely new things which previously did not even exist in imagination.

Read the whole thing by 0xFCAF on Metafilter

QOTD

The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.

–Thomas Paine

QOTD

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

–Louis D. Brandeis

QOTD

“Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake.

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.

If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

–Bertrand Russell

(In honor of adding Russell’s Teapot to my blogroll. These are some of my favorite strips).

QOTD

“A knowledge of the true age of the earth and of the fossil record makes it impossible for any balanced intellect to believe in the literal truth of every part of the Bible in the way that fundamentalists do. And if some of the Bible is manifestly wrong, why should any of the rest of it be accepted automatically?”

–Francis Crick

QOTD

“Society bends over backward to be accommodating to religious sensibilities but not to other kinds of sensibilities. If I say something offensive to religious people, I’ll be universally censured, including by many atheists. But if I say something insulting about Democrats or Republicans or the Green Party, one is allowed to get away with that. Hiding behind the smoke screen of untouchability is something religions have been allowed to get away with for too long.”

–Richard Dawkins

QOTD

Upon telling Heather that I haven’t shaved in a while:

A WEEK! But Chris, you grow hair like . . . something that grows hair a lot!

Understanding Engineers

An engineer describing something as “non-trivial” means roughly the following:

It means impossible. Since no engineer is going to admit something is impossible, they use this word instead. When an engineer says something is “non-trivial,” it’s the equivalent of an airline pilot calmly telling you that you might encounter “just a bit of turbulence” as he flies you into a cat 5 hurricane.

“>Full article

-->

July 17th, 2007  •   Comments Off  •   Tags: quotes, tech  •  

Our Strange Language

When the English tongue we speak,
Why is “break” not rhymed with “freak”?
Will you tell me why it’s true,
We say “sew” but likewise “few”,

And the fashioner of verse
Cannot cap his “horse” with “worse”?
“Beard” sounds not the same as “heard”,
“Cord” is different from “word”;

“Cow” is cow but “low” is low,
“Shoe” is never rhymed with “foe”;
Think of “hose” and “dose” and “lose”,
And of “goose” and also “choose”;

Think of “tomb” and “bomb” and “comb”,
“Doll” and “roll” and “some” and “home”,
And since “pay” is rhymed with “say”,
Why not “paid” and “said” I pray?

We have “blood” and “food” and “good”,
“Mould” is not pronounced like “could”;
Wherefore “done” but “gone” and “lone”?
Is there any reason known?

No in short, it seems to me
Sound and letters disagree.

–E.L. Sabin

QOTD

“Our generation must be the one that says, “We must halt global warming.” If we don’t act now, it will be too late. Our generation must be the one that says “yes” to renewable fuels and ends forever our dependence on foreign oil. Our generation must be the one that accepts responsibility for conserving natural resources and demands the tools to do it. And our generation must be the one that builds the New Energy Economy. How do we do it? It won’t be easy, but it is time to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war.“

– John Edwards

(emphasis mine; full interview here)

QOTD

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

Yeah, makes perfect sense…

– Author Unknown

QOTD

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

(Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)

QOTD

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.

–Groucho Marx

QOTD

“I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants”

– A. Whitney Brown

QOTD

“It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure.

Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter.”

–Nathaniel S Borenstein

QOTD

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something”
-Thomas Huxley

QOTD

“Three can keep a secret if two are dead.”

-Benjamin Franklin

QOTD

Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’ This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

–Douglas Adams

Freedom that isn’t free

God says do what you wish, but make the wrong choice and you will be tortured for eternity in hell. That sir, is not free will. It would be akin to a man telling his girlfriend, do what you wish, but if you choose to leave me, I will track you down and blow your brains out. When a man says this we call him a psychopath and cry out for his imprisonment/execution. When god says the same we call him “loving” and build churches in his honor.

–William C. Easttom II

QOTD

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

Arthur C. Clarke